David William Laing (9 January 1947 – 7 January 2019)
was an English writer, editor, and broadcaster, specialising in the history and development of
pop and
rock music
Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...
. He was a research fellow at the universities of
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
.
Biography
Laing was born in
Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, and attended
King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London an ...
in
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, where he joined his first band. He began studies at
St Catharine's College, Cambridge, but left in 1967 without graduating and moved to London. He started writing music articles and his first book, ''The Sound of Our Time'' (1970), while working in clerical jobs. He then took a degree in English and sociology at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
, where he met fellow writer
Phil Hardy
Philip Hardy (born 9 April 1973) is an English-born former Ireland under-21 footballer who played as a left-back. With Welsh club Wrexham from 1990 to 2001, he played more than 450 games under manager Brian Flynn. He was named on the PFA ...
. Laing also worked with
Val Wilmer
Valerie Sybil Wilmer (born 7 December 1941) is a British photographer and writer specialising in jazz, gospel, blues, and British African-Caribbean music and culture. Her notable books include ''Jazz People'' (1970) and ''As Serious As Your Lif ...
on an unpublished history of
coal mining communities.
In 1971 he published one of the first extended analyses of a pop musician's recordings, ''Buddy Holly''. At the suggestion of writer
Charlie Gillett
Charles Thomas Gillett (; 20 February 1942 – 17 March 2010) was a British radio presenter, musicologist, and writer, mainly on rock and roll and other forms of popular music. He was particularly noted for his influential book ''The Sound of t ...
,
Laing became editor of the monthly British music magazine ''
Let It Rock'', from October 1972 to October 1973. His other books include ''The Electric Muse: the story of Folk into Rock'' (with
,
Robin Denselow
Robin Denselow is a British writer, journalist, and broadcaster.
Education
Denselow was educated at Leighton Park School, a boys' Quaker boarding independent school (now co-educational) in Reading, Berkshire
Reading ( ) is a town and borough ...
and
Robert Shelton, 1975), and ''One Chord Wonders: Power and Meaning in Punk Rock'' (1985). In the mid-1970s Laing was co-editor of one of the first reference books on rock music, ''The Encyclopedia of Rock''. In 1978 he published ''The Marxist Theory of Art'', written after moving to
Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest ...
in
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
.
Laing co-authored, with Phil Hardy, ''The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music'' (1995), and co-wrote, with Sarah Davis, ''The Guerrilla Guide to the Music Business'' (2001). Laing was an editor of the ''Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World''. He also wrote widely in music magazines and newspapers, including ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''. As of 2016, he was the managing editor of the journal ''Popular Music History'' and co-editor of the ''Icons of Pop Music'' book series.
Laing died of cancer on 7 January 2019, at the age of 71.
References
1947 births
2019 deaths
English male journalists
English music historians
English writers about music
Place of birth missing
{{England-writer-stub